With demographic changes and rising emotional demands, the pet economy has flourished and is leading new trends in consumption. The 2025 White Paper on the Chinese pet industry (hereinafter " the White Paper " ) shows that in 2024 the size of the urban pet (cat) consumer market exceeded the 300 billion yuan mark, with a slight increase in the number of dogs and cats, totalling 120 million. According to the report on monitoring the performance of the Chinese pet industry and the consumer market for the period 2024-2025, published by the Aids Counsel, the size of the country ' s pet economy has remained positive and is expected to reach $1.15 billion by 2028.
Behind the figures are subversive changes in consumption attitudes, from “small crowds” to “class trillions of blue sea”. As more and more “puzzling children” enter the family, their impact on breeders is changing, leading the “peet economy” to move from a simple “breeding” to a life-cycle industry that covers food, shelter, old and old.
How did Aoshima capture this "slaming market"? On the basis of industry, Qingdao has an advantage in pet food lanes, with more than 200 market-wide pet food processing firms, and a total of approximately $5 billion in the pet feed (food) industry in 2024, an increase of 25 per cent over the same period, as well as four enterprises with an annual operating income of over billions. On this basis, Qingdao Enterprises are capturing individualized and diversified consumption trends of pet breeders and unlocking more areas of pet consumption breakdown in order to gain greater market penetration.
The pet food has moved from substitute to intellectual.
The rise of the pet industry is reflected not only in the expansion of market size but also in the increasing diversification of its consumption structure. From pet foods and supplies to pet services, each of the subdivisions shows strong growth momentum. Of these, the pet food market is undoubtedly the hottest growth area, and the White Paper shows that its market share as a major component of pet consumption is as high as 52.8 per cent.
At Arut Food Co. Ltd., Qingjiang, located on the street of the Zhang family building in the West Coast, the Deputy Director-General of Production, Lee Qingmei, described the establishment of Arut in 2006 as a major pet food export, which, after almost two decades of development, is now mainly exported to foreign markets such as the European Union, South-East Asia and Australia. Sales increased by 25 per cent each year in 2024, with production exceeding 8,000 tons.
“We have further introduced skilled personnel and established laboratories in cooperation with higher education institutions, intensified research and development to meet the growing diversity of consumer demand through brand-new products, and strived to remain at the forefront of intense market competition.” Li Qingmei described how Arut currently had three patents on technological inventions and over 30 new and practical patents.
Since its inception in 2022, the Qingdao Car pet food company, located in the flat economy development area, has been among the provincial “innovated SMEs” for only three years. The company has fully automated production lines and pharmaceutical-grade sterile workshops, which produce 60 tons per day after childbirth and exceed 20,000 tons per year. The growth trajectory of this young enterprise is a microcosm of the leap of the Aoshima pet economy from generation to intellectual creation.
“We caught the window when the pet food market broke out, building barriers to competition through `smart equipment + process innovation'.” According to Hu Tunglin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qingxi Island Petty Foods Ltd., Carl's pet foods are currently working with well-known brands such as the Internet, three squirrels, with product lines covering the full-priced food of dogs and cats, frozen dry snacks, and exported to more than 20 countries and regions, including South-East Asia and Europe.
Explore new paradigms for cross-border break-ups of pet economies
In recent years, as consumption perceptions change and individualized demand drives, petting has become one of the options for more people to raise their pets.
Offside traditional pets such as cats, dogs, fish viewers such as reptiles, insects, small mammals, etc. According to the White Paper, over the past year there has been an increasing trend in the out-of-consumption market and a steady rise in the number of out-of-pocket breeders. By the end of 2024, some 1.7 million people were raising exotics, and the market was close to $10 billion. The hobbies have gradually become an emerging trend of consumption.
The Qingdao Rich Animals Company Ltd., located on Dragon Springs Street in the Mok district, is the front enterprise in the Cold Gate Drive, mainly engaged in reptile food operations and farming. According to the director-in-chief of the company, last year the company sold 120 million yuan, of which about 80 per cent was exported.
In 2012, through a strategic partnership with the Qingdao University of Agriculture, the Qingdao University of Agriculture established the Institute of Science and Technology for the Development of Crawling Animals, which focuses on the domesticization and breeding of reptile pets such as pyroacs, corn snakes, among which the pyramids and toy snakes are leading domestic breeding techniques and capabilities.
In recent years, the share of “psychological consumption” such as leisure, social and psychological care in the pet consumer market has continued to rise, and the pet economy is extending from the end of production to the end of experience. Aware of this shift, Qingdao enterprises have begun exploring new ecology in the pet economy.
Qingdao Patients Ltd., located in the Mok district, has developed a genetic excellence system based on the introduction of dogs of the United States of America, the Caribbean and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with a capacity of over 200 at present. According to Zhu Jianbo, the founder of the company, the current phase of pet consumption is expanding from “material feeding” to “psychiatric enrichment” and, in the face of intense market competition and difficulties in the breeding industry, businesses are developing new businesses and are currently working on the construction of geriatric canine centres to provide “silver services” such as chronic disease management and terminal care.
“The pet industry is essentially an `emotional economy', and only services throughout the life cycle can meet the deep needs of users.” According to Zhu Jianbo, businesses now not only provide canine breeding, but also work with professional institutions to develop targeted training for guide dogs and dogs and to introduce customized services such as behavioural corrections and social training.
It can be seen that a breakthrough in the “life-cycle” service chain, moving from a single product to a whole scene, has great economic potential for pets.